Subject: Re: Thanks
From: Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com>
Date: 5/30/10, 23:39
To: Shanna Carpenter <shanna@ted.com>

Please let me know if there's any way at all I can convince you to provide me with the names of additional organizations of which you are aware that we might be able to learn from in the context of our efforts. You noted that you would need to know how we are planning on raising money and I have provided you with access to that information; I will also note here, in case you would prefer a summary, that we are pursuing grants and donations from various sources (first of which will be Kickstarters, where we'll be putting up a project profile next week), that we will be raising additional funds with the help of our participating bloggers who themselves have a very large collective audience made up of relatively progressive individuals who are thus likely to consider providing donations for the sorts of efforts in which we'll be engaging, and that we are also considering other methods in addition to those straightforward ones, all of which will be overseen by those of our participants who have worked for other charities as well as several lawyers and financial industry veterans who have together been looking into our options in terms of what particular legal form our charitable branch should take, whether to incorporate in New York or Illinois or elsewhere, and other factors. Additionally, our main focus at this point, which involves the distribution of small-scale engineering methods and blueprints to individual villages, requires little to no resources on our part, as we are partnering with an organization based here in Brooklyn run by Frank Cohen which takes Bushwick teenagers to sub-Saharan nations to engage in various sorts of hands-on assistance, and which would thus be able to bring and distribute pamphlets of the sort described above. That would be one of several distribution methods that wouldn't cost us any money but would nonetheless be effective, and would likely be followed by other educational programs designed to promote productivity.

In addition to the document on the Africa Development Program that I sent you last week, I have also just sent you a link to our sub-document in which we have been discussing specific options related to financing, including the options we're looking into regarding grants.

If for any reason you don't feel comfortable providing us with the names of additional organizations, please let me know and I'll stop asking for that information. Or, if there's any other pertinent info you would need from me before providing that information, let me know what that might be so that I can get it to you.

Thanks again for your time.

On Tue, May 25, 2010 at 11:41 AM, Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:
I didn't say that I wouldn't discuss my project further with you, but rather that I don't think there's any reason to discuss my various faults at any greater length. If you passing along information is contingent on me answering further questions about the program, I'd be happy to do that, of course; I'm assuming that that is what you mean, and that you don't require me to discuss non-related matters in order for you to provide with that information.

Obviously it's your choice to make whether or not you pass on information to me, but I would note that you had no problem doing so with Honeybees, so I don't understand why it is now your policy not to do what you have already done; perhaps you can explain your reasoning further. Anyway, I have just sent you a link by which you may examine our main document on the Africa Development Program and see more about we plan to execute the ideas. This document contains the information that you have cited as necessary for you to consider giving us the names of any such organizations; if you find that you require further information in addition to this, I will provide it to you upon request.


On Tue, May 25, 2010 at 7:36 AM, Shanna Carpenter <shanna@ted.com> wrote:
1. Before I insisted on the phone conversation going "the way of my choice," I answered your question. So, we had the conversation you wanted to have first and then I addressed the points I wanted to. Hardly unfair, I think.

2. I understand that I asked a question that deserved a complicated answer. Even so, 12 minutes is an awfully long time to talk without pausing to see if the other person understands, to allow for questions etc. That was my objection, as there were several points I would have liked to address, but felt I had no opportunity to interject.

3. I'm sorry to hear that you think that nothing can be accomplished by further discussion. I won't be able to pass contacts on to you as a result, because I don't refer people to organizations or projects that I don't personally believe in. I think you have great ideas, but I don't understand how you intend to create and maintain sustainable resources that will allow for execution of those ideas.

4. I apologize again for dropping out of your life without explanation. That was completely my fault and I'm not proud of it. Sometimes, I simply avoid situations that I feel are too much for me to deal with. In this case, I behaved that way without regard for how that might affect you and that was fundamentally wrong of me.

Best of luck with everything,

Shanna




On Tue, May 25, 2010 at 1:04 AM, Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:
I appreciate you giving me that info on Honeybee, and hope that you'll let me know if you come across any other individuals or organizations that I can either learn from or corroborate with.

I don't think we ought to continue our conversation as you suggested, as I don't think there's anything to be accomplished by it, which is why I was hoping to simply briefly discuss potential contacts that would facilitate my organization's ability to most effectively assist Africans, and my ot We clearly have very different views on a number of things that prevent us from communicating productively. I'll be totally frank since I do think I owe you an explanation since we have spent considerable time in a relationship together - I'm disappointed that, after having suddenly stopped speaking to me without providing any reason why, and after having nonetheless insisted that our first phone conversation since that point go in a particular way of your choice, and after having insisted that I ask you what deficits of mine had prompted you to stop talking to me in the first place, and after having noted that you don't see the advantages of the project, that you would actually criticize me for having spent 12 minutes in trying to explain the aspects of a complicated project as well as your apparently central concerns about whether or not I'm crazy. I was explaining all of this as best I could because you insisted that I do so, and because I felt obligated to engage in those sorts of conversations with someone to whom I was close for a period of time, even if you've never felt the same obligation to me. And I took that time to try to answer questions that you had asked me despite the fact that I have several articles due soon in addition to my other work and obligation. And then you criticized me for having spent 12 minutes trying to address those things that had caused you to end the relationship and which you were now asking me to explain, and later stated that I was being so irrational or unfair or something that you weren't sure we should keep talking. I am rarely surprised by things but I was frankly astonished at this.

Basically, there is nothing to be accomplished in both of us taking time out of our schedules to continue this discussion, so I'll just say that I enjoyed the time we spent together and leave it at that.


Regards,

Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302''



--
Shanna Carpenter
Writer and Community Organizer,
TED.com and TEDActive
TED Conferences: "Ideas Worth Spreading"
shanna@ted.com
1.212.346.9333



--
Regards,

Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302



--
Regards,

Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302